EU's answer to energy independence

June 7, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

The EU Parliament in Brussels is calling for a breakthrough green renewable energy program, Project Volt Gas Volt (VGV), as a comprehensive solution to global warming and energy independence.

European Parliament member (and Former French Minister of the Environment) Corinne Lepage and American Professor of Management Robert I. Bell concur that Project VGV offers a "totally reliable, safe phase-out of nuclear power and fossil fuels -- with the possibility of enhancement rather than a reduction in lifestyle."

They contend that this will play out through energy storage that permits a constant flow of electricity, allowing for a shift to 100 percent renewable energy sources, overcoming the intermittent energy flows. Surplus electricity generated by wind and solar, converted into methane, can be stored for months in the existing natural gas grid, making it the battery for renewable energy, and simultaneously making hydraulic fracturing obsolete. The methane would be used to produce electricity and district heating, or as a motor fuel.

Project VGV proposes a long-term financing plan over the same time period as the energy transition itself that would allow governments and other organizations to significantly accelerate the build-out of the technology.

"We will use the surplus energy from nuclear, now largely wasted at night, to help pay for the exit from nuclear. And we will use the CO₂ generated from burning waste, biomass and from steel mills and cement plants to generate the methane," Bell explained.

For more:
- see this report

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/eus-answer-energy-independence/2013-06-07